DNC chairman offends Christians, says Catholic League

, Jun 9, 2005 / 12:00 am (CNA).- The chairman of the Democratic National Committee has done an about-face, says the Catholic League. When Howard Dean accepted the chairmanship of the DNC in February, he committed the DNC to “religious outreach.” But in a speech in San Francisco June 6, he criticized the Republican Party as “pretty much a white, Christian party.”

“Dean’s comment in San Francisco was the kind of snide remark that we would expect from someone who regards white Christians as the enemy—not from someone who is the titular leader of the Democratic Party” said Catholic League president William Donohue in a statement.

“Precisely how Dean expects to do religious outreach when he writes off the majority of the nation is not known, but it is a sure bet that if his counterpart in the Republican Party were to refer to the Democrats as the party of blacks and secularists, he’d be canned,” he said.

Donohue pointed out that the DNC has “insulted Christians, especially Catholics” in the past by drawing support from “the nation’s largest anti-Catholic group, Catholics for a Free Choice.”

“Why either party would allow its leader to offend people of faith is beyond belief,” he said.